Benefits of cyber security for Small Enterprises?
Updated: Aug 20, 2022
Cyber threats don't affect only large enterprises and governments – they can also affect small businesses. According to research, nearly half of small businesses have experienced a cyberattack, and 69% are concerned about future attacks. Therefore, small businesses should be aware of cyber security statistics and take tangible steps to protect their businesses against cyberattacks.
Employee records, customer information, loyalty schemes, transactions, and data collection are critical pieces of information that businesses need to protect. In addition, the above practices prevent third parties from using the information for fraudulent purposes, such as phishing scams and identity theft.
It's crucial to safeguard your company from cyberattacks, but some business owners are unsure how to do it.
This article is intended to help small business owners navigate the realm of cyber threats and fortify their data security. In addition, the benefits of data security for small businesses are also discussed.
Data security
Data security is keeping data safe from unauthorized access or corruption.
Data protection entails safeguarding not only your company's data but also that of your customers and vendors.
Data encryption, hashing, tokenization, and key management are data security strategies that safeguard data across all applications and platforms.
Small firms, unfortunately, appear to be a much easier target for hackers, as their security systems are typically less advanced than those of a medium or large company. Despite this, most small business owners believe they are not vulnerable to a data breach.
Why data security?
Organizations worldwide invest extensively in information technology (IT) cyber security capabilities to secure their essential assets. Every business must protect its brand, intellectual capital, and customer information. It also needs to provide controls for essential infrastructure. However, incident detection and response have three fundamental elements: people, processes, and technology.
Cyber security problems and their effect on small businesses
Security risks faced by small businesses?
Small businesses may not have the operational know-how or employees to appropriately protect their IT systems and networks.
Small firms confront a variety of cyber security challenges, including:
Attacks by phishers: Phishing refers to a type of social engineering attack frequently used to obtain personal data from users; such data includes login credentials and credit card details.
Malware attack: Malware attacks are common cyberattacks in which malware (usually malicious software) performs unauthorized actions on the victim's system.
Ransomware: Ransomware is a sort of crypto virology malware that threatens to expose or permanently limit access to the victim's personal information unless a ransom is paid.
Internal threats: Internal threats are often the result of poor access controls or a lack of proper staff training. Hostile employees or ex-employees might perpetrate cyber attacks in the company, posing internal threats.
Weak passwords: passwords that aren't strong enough can expose a company to unauthorized access and security risks.
Use a combination of at least eight different letters, numbers, and symbols in your password to make it strong. It is more difficult to guess a longer password and contains more character types (including upper and lowercase letters). For instance, M0l#eb7Qs? Employs a unique mix of capital and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. It is also recommended to change passwords every 90 days or less.
Organizations should carefully review password security policies and management since stolen or weak passwords are still the most common cause of data breaches.
What effect does an attack have?
A successful cyber attack on your business can be devastating. It can hurt your financial line, your company's reputation and consumer trust. A security breach has three major consequences: financial, reputational, and legal.
The financial cost of a cyberattack
Cyber breaches frequently cause a significant financial loss due to:
Unauthorized access to corporate data
Theft of corporate data
Financial information theft (e.g., bank details or payment card details)
Theft of funds
Trading disruption (e.g., inability to carry out transactions online)
Loss of contract or business
In addition, businesses would typically pay fees for fixing systems, networks, and devices affected in response to the breach.
Damage to the company's reputation.
A good customer relationship must be based on trust. Cyberattacks can harm your company's reputation and reduce client trust in you. This might ultimately result in:
Loss of clients
Sales decline
Decrease in profits
Reputational damage may harm your relationships with partners, investors, suppliers, and other interested parties.
Legal consequences of a cyberattack
You are required by data protection and privacy laws to manage the security of all personal data you hold, whether it relates to your customers or your personnel. You may be subject to penalties and regulatory sanctions if this data is compromised unintentionally or on purpose and you fail to implement the necessary data security measures.